1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic equipment apparatus and electronic equipment assembly and, more particularly, to an electronic equipment and electronic equipment assembly, which are connected to a plurality of electrical car accessories (vehicle electric devices) such as a car navigation apparatus, car audio system, and the like via connectors, and can concentratively operate and control these vehicle electric devices
2. Description of Related Art
In a vehicle, especially, an automobile, the number (variety) of electric device units (also called information processing units or space-occupying units) which operate in accordance with passenger's operations is growing, and such electric device units are concentratively arranged in the middle of an instrumental panel between the driver seat and front passenger seat. More specifically, an air-conditioner control unit and audio control unit are disposed in this portion, and a console including switches and the like operated by a passenger, and a display unit such as a display for displaying the operation states of the units are mounted on its front surface, i.e., the surface facing the passenger room. Recently, the variety of audio units has increased, and the number of audio units including an AM/FM radio receiver, cassette deck, CD player, MD player, equalizer, and the like alone is considerable. In addition to these units, a navigation unit is also popularly mounted, and a display for displaying the map for navigation is required.
Conventionally, electric device units having different functions (contents of information processing) are independent of each other, and have consoles operated by the passenger and display units for the passenger on their front surfaces, i.e., the surfaces facing the passenger room in units of independent units. In order to concentrate or commonly use the display units and a large number of consoles as much as possible, a plurality of electric device units having different functions are sometimes combined into a single unit.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-244636 proposed a frame that combines a plurality of independent electric device units having different functions into one set. More specifically, this reference proposed a frame which comprises a chassis portion for coupling a plurality of vertically stacked electric device units into a single set, and a front surface panel portion that forms a wall surface facing the passenger room. However, the individual electric device units independently have display units and consoles, and the front surface panel portion is formed with only openings that allow observation of these display units from the passenger room, and openings that allow operation of the consoles from the passenger room. That is, the frame merely serves as a fastening component for combining a plurality of independent electric device units into one set.
As described above, when many electric device units are concentrated on a narrow portion, the layout of the display units and many consoles is considerably limited, and it is not preferable in terms of operability and visibility. As the number of units becomes larger, the operability and visibility for some units worsen.
As a method of improving operability and visibility, as described above, different functions are combined to build a single unit. However, in this case, since the number and variety of units to be mounted and (the number and variety of functions) vary depending on grades even in an identical model of vehicle, a considerable number of combinations exist for the number and variety of units to be mounted. For this reason, when sets of units are prepared in correspondence with these many combinations, the number (variety) of sets becomes considerable. This fact limits formation of such sets, and the number of sets manufactured per kind becomes small, resulting in high cost.
Especially, in recent vehicles, a console for an air conditioner is arranged in the middle portion of an instrumental panel in the widthwise direction of the vehicle in advance from the vehicle design process, and a 2-DIN opening is formed in a portion except for the console for the air conditioner. Units of the audio system, navigation apparatus, and the like must be arranged within this 2-DIN space, thus tremendously limiting the layout of the consoles and display units of the electric device units.
In commercially available electric device components for a vehicle, consoles including operation switches and the like are prepared in units of units, and the passenger arbitrarily operates these consoles of the electric device components.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-107082 discloses a method in which a wiring connector that secures connection of a car radio unit is attached to a vehicle-side bracket, a radio-side connector is provided to the rear portion of the car radio unit, and the wiring connector and radio-side connector are coupled to each other upon attachment of the car radio unit, so as to simultaneously attain attachment and wiring of an audio equipment.
However, in the above prior art, since the consoles of the vehicle electric device components are arranged in units of electric device units, the automobile manufacturers, dealers, and the like must have a large stock of vehicle electric device components so as to change grade in correspondence with the types of vehicle. When the user wants to grade up electric device components, the user must exchange them in units of components, resulting in troublesome attachment and large cost for the user.
The user must operate each of the vehicle electric device components, and must confirm each of the display units of the vehicle electric device components in correspondence with switch operations.
The vehicle electric device components must display on the corresponding display units, and a display corresponding to switch operation must be confirmed on the corresponding one of the display units of the vehicle electric device components.
Also, the wire harness that connects the vehicle-side connector and electric device components is complicated. When the user wants to grade up electric device components, the user must exchange and connect them in units of components using the vehicle-side connector, resulting in complicated attachment in later processes.